Mold on Top of a Fermenting BRV (Brown Rice Vinegar)
The I Ching reading drew Conflict, with the message that the way through is disengagement: step back from doubt, fear, and impatience and hold to quiet, correct principles instead of pushing for an unnatural resolution.
Drake talked about the KNF Facebook group he started years ago, now around 30,000 members. He has been off Facebook himself since around 2020, and traces the group's decline to 2017 or 2018, when Chris Trump took over admin duties, pushed Drake and co-founder Richard Noonan out, and let others run it into what Drake called low-quality, spam-filled posts.
The one direct KNF question: someone making their own BRV (brown rice vinegar) from an apple cider vinegar mother saw mold forming on top during fermentation. Drake said that is normal, and confirmed the same for another farmer, Luca, going through the same process.
He closed by returning to the I Ching's lesson: when conflict shows up, in a Facebook group or anywhere else, the fix is to disengage and return to calm footing.
Questions answered
- 8:36 Making BRV (brown rice vinegar) from an apple cider vinegar mother — mold formed on top during fermentation, is that normal? — Yes, that's normal — Drake confirmed the same for another farmer, Luca, going through the same process.
KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.
In this episode
- 0:00 Stream opens, welcome to March
- 2:59 I Ching reading: conflict
- 5:23 Why disengage is the answer to conflict
- 6:16 History of the KNF Facebook group
- 6:58 Why the Facebook group sucks now
- 7:47 How the group got taken over in 2017
- 8:36 BRV mold question: is this normal
- 9:23 On showing up every week for people
- 10:53 Moderation, feeling safe, and burnout
- 12:46 Wrap-up: disengage, see you next week
Transcript
Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.
2:59 It's March already. Well, welcome to March, you guys. You marched forth yesterday. And then... So we'll see. We'll throw I Ching for today. See what we get. And... And... And... Oh, isn't this the one? So, um... Get conflict. Which is the proper response to conflict, whether it lies within or without us, is disengagement. So whenever we allow ourselves to be drawn off balance away from strength of quiet integrity, we are in conflict. It matters not whether the confrontation is between competing values in one's own mind or with another person.
3:47 It is the inner departure from clarity and equanimity that leaves us with feelings of despair and vulnerability. The only remedy is to disengagement. The only remedy is to disengage from the problem and return to the quiet contemplation of what's correct. Conflict provokes strong feelings of doubt, fear, anxiety, and impatience to resolve the situation. If you act under these influences of these inferior emotions, you will severely complicate the misfortune.
4:26 By following the prescription of the sage and returning to a position of neutrality, acceptance, and detachment, you are able to meet opposing forces halfway. Not recoiling in anger and condemnation. Not pressing forward for some unnatural change in things. But waiting calmly in the center until the higher power provides a correct solution. The I Ching teaches us that all conflict is in the end, inner conflict. When you see a beginning, you are obliged not to pursue it. For this only compounds your misfortune.
5:03 If you cannot regain your equanimity on your own, then seek the assistance of a just, just, just, an impartial person in resolving the difficulty. The only way to live free of conflict is to hold steadfastly to the proper principles in all things. Through balance, patience, and devotion to inner truth, we rise above every challenge. So, there you go. Conflict. Yep. Um, definitely seems like, um, when I was in, just my life in general has been that way a little bit. So, um, yeah. And then the KNF group here too. It's all like, conflicted and has all this shit going on.
5:50 Um, I guess I can say shit now. I don't know if YouTube's going to censor that, but it's kind of funny because, um, let me, let me just share this screen here. Switch to this one. Slide this over. And then switch to this. So, so this Facebook, I've largely been off Facebook, uh, since 2020, I think. 2021. I don't know. Whenever, um, I just quit all that stuff. And then, um, you know, so I've been running this group for a long time. It says like 30,000 something people in there. And then, but here it is. Every time there's just these stupid freaking videos that suck and everyone hates them.
6:34 And here's more of them. And here's more of them. And, oh, there's something that's not. But it's just like trying to maintain this and do that. It's just, um, this place sucks. And I don't know why I just came on here to like talk crap about Facebook. Maybe it's because I got the conflict right away. But this group sucks. Um, and people try and tell me, oh, make it better or whatever. It just sucks. Because, I don't know, get off Facebook is the main, main thing to say. And, uh, I don't know, because we were trying to connect the world. And now it's like bots and everything.
7:11 Chatby GPT has taken over. And you say it's fixable, but I don't know how. Um, and so, um, I think what I may do, and this is not, um, Um, yeah. Um, the reason, main reason I haven't, um, I haven't given anyone else admin period and privileges is because when Chris Trump came in there in 2018 or 2017, whatever, I can go look in the exact log when he did it. And he fucking kicked me out when I'd started the group and he kicked out Richard Noonan. And then he let a bunch of people take over. And, um, I, I don't know.
7:58 It just, it kind of killed a lot of my, um, a lot of that stuff. So anyway, if you want to find the source of it, it's that dude. Um, so let's see, maybe I'll just get to some fucking questions. Um, what's up, Mark? Bruh. Yeah, bro. Um, glad you're around. Um. Yeah, hope you make it to Big Island. If you don't, it's fine, whatever. It doesn't matter. One question. My BRV that is trying to make myself from brown rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar from the mother is fermenting. There's some mold on top. Is this normal? Yes. Cool.
8:44 Luca, I'm in the middle of the same process. Answer to the question is yes. Yes. Ben, thank you. Yes. What's up, Germany? So, yeah. It's not, you know, it's kind of funny because you, you go on the internet and you expect, you know, it's like, I heard, I heard one of the best things for mentorship for kids is showing up every week for one hour. Um, and that's all you have to do. And I think it's, I think that's because it's like all this other stuff ends up happening in your life. And if you continually show up for something, you really are showing up for it.
9:23 Um, but if you, you know, you can't show up for things, then, um, I don't even know where I was going with that. So, yeah, I just, you know, showing up all the time and you, oftentimes you never like when I, when I go to some, um, class or something, I don't ever think of how the teacher's day went. I don't ever think of what was going on in their life. I don't ever think about any of that. Or you just expect them to be like happy and help you and like be a service. And, you know, even when you're out in like in society and you're going someplace and it's
10:01 like, there's somebody, um, you know, just helping you out doing, doing stuff. And it's like, you never think about how their day is going, you know? So, and, um, it just, yeah, it's just, everybody has, everybody has their own bullshit to deal with, you know? So, um, but I should probably just shove that shit down the fucking, fuck all the fucking hate. God damn. It's so fucking hard to keep showing up for this shit. Almost, you know, fuck.
10:47 Moderation helps everyone feel safe. I fucking hope, ah, feeling safe. Fuck all those people, man. Moderation so you can feel safe. Oh, fuck you. Safe, safe. You hurt my feelings. Put people in timeout. Because they're all fucking children. So fucking over this. I don't even know why I came on today.
11:36 I don't even know why. Should've just not shown up. Should've just not shown up. Should've just not shown up. It's like, it's like shit like this where you like, you know, you're real. Show it. And it's like. Thanks, Ben. Thanks. Yeah, I know there's lots of people out there that do that. It's just. So anyway. I don't know. What am I doing here? Embarrassing myself being here. So. Yeah. You guys probably got better things to do with your day. So. So.
12:46 Yeah. Conflict. Best thing to do is disengage. So. Maybe it'll be better next week. Good luck. Thanks for tuning in.